The
symposia are organized by GlobalArtAffairs Foundation, in cooperation
with local institutions and with the assistance of the curators Sarah
Gold and Karlyn De Jongh as well as the art historian Peter Lodermeyer,
and the artist Rene Rietmeyer. In September 2009 a book, containing 448
pages, 15.000 copies, on all previous symposia with additional artists interviews, has been published by DUMONT, Germany.

CONCEPT:

By
abandoning the representation of external reality, artistic parameters
themselves (such as color, size, composition, material, etc.) have
become themes of non-representational art. The more non-representational
art makes the work processes a subject and includes the viewer and
his/her receptive activities in the works, the more the basics of
production and reception of art come into focus.

Artworks
are created, exist, and recognized in time and space. This seems so
obvious that its actual meaning is often overlooked. Therefore, time,
and space as ”forms of intuition(Anschauungsformen)“ (Kant) as well as
existence (of the artist, the artwork and the viewer) are the themes of
the three ”Personal Structures“ symposia. Even though Time, Space, and
Existence are inextricable, the ”Personal Structures“ symposia in
Amsterdam, New York and Tokyo will each focus on one of the three terms
as the major subject.

In Amsterdam the center of discussion was: TIME

Time
always implicates movement or change. The way we experience, think, and
perceive time is in constant flux, i.e. depends on time. This also
applies to artistic concepts of time: The possibilities for visualizing
time using artistic means unavoidably change over the course of time.
”Personal Structures“, as a forum for artists working in a
non-representational manner, focuses on art which favors a concentrated,
but subjective, form language. Hereby, directly or indirectly,
time-concepts play an important role. In Amsterdam, several artists will
speak for whom the subject “time” is of great importance. Artists, art
historians, and museum people are invited to join the discussion about
time and time concepts in non-representational art.

In Tokyo the center of discussion was: EXISTENCE.

Existence,
in the strictly philosophical sense (for example, as it is used by
Heidegger and Sartre), is the “kind of being” that exclusively applies
to humans. “To exist” does not merely mean being present but rather
“self-design”, being open for possibilities, and freedom. We live in a
thoroughly-organized world under constant pressure – the pressure to
perform, the pressures of time and conformity – as well as pressures
stemming from the influence of the mass media. Given these
circumstances, art can bear, regardless of purpose, the function to
articulate existential topics and create the possibility for moments of
intensified self-awareness. Therefore, one’s own existence, with its
particular terms and conditions, can become an artistic subject and
thus, serve as model for the self-encounter of the viewer.

In New York the center of discussion was: SPACE

In
his very last text in1993, Donald Judd stated that until that time
there had been virtually no discussion of space in art. “After a few
thousand years space is so unknown that a discussion of it would have
to begin with a rock”. Consequently, for the second symposium, basic
artistic questions related to space and spatiality will be discussed. On
the one hand, “space-relatedness” means the three-dimensional body of
the artwork itself or its aesthetic interaction with
the actual space in which it is placed. On the other hand,
“space-relatedness” means the various notions of space depending on
personal, cultural, and social circumstances. These become visible in
the artist’s specific choice of his or her means of expression.